Device for tilting rails



sept. 27, 1.921.

F. E. HowELLs ET AL DEVICE FOR TIILTING RAILS Filed um@ 21, 1921 sides.

Patented Sept. l27, 1927. l

UNITED STATES l 1,643,714 PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK E. HOWELLS AND LESTER L. LEAGH, OF STEELTON, ENNSYLYANIA, ASSIGNORS T BETI'ILEHEM STEEL COMPANY, 0F BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORA- TION OF PENNSYLVANIA. Y I

DEVICE Fon TILTING RAILS.

Application filed March 21, A1921. i Serial No. 454,110. j

As is well known in the art of' making steel Vrails for 'railway tracks and the like, the hot rails leaving the rolls are usually carried to a hot bed by a roller line on which they lie insuccession longitudinally on their sides, and at the hot bed they are pushed or moved laterally by a sliding action to the surface of the .adjacent hot bed, still lying on their For various reasons, including convenience of handling, it islater necessary to turn them from their side position t0 an upright position on the hot vbed' such as they occupy in use. The present invention residesin means for removing in lsuccession each raiLVas it comes to position opposite the hot bed, from the roller line to the hot bed, and for automatically turning each rail on its longitudinal axis from its side position to an upright position on the hot bed during and-by this movement. The novel i features of the invention will more fully appear from the following description and claims,l taken with the drawings.

In the drawings: v e

Figure 1 is a plan view of an'apparatus embodying our invention partly broken away. y v

Figure' 2 is a side view of the apparatus partly broken` away.

Figure. 3 is an enlarged diagrammatic illustration of `the means and operation in tilting and turning the rail; and

Figui-e4 is a: perspective view of aportion of a modied formof stop used in turn.- ing the rail.l l

As showny in Figures 1. and`2, a. roller line 10 made up of spaced parallelA cylindrical rollersv 11 operates as a conveyor to bring rails from the rolls to the hot. bed 12 arranged closely adjacent thereto" at one "side, and'V preferably at a slightly `lower levehthe adjacent ends of therollers being. slightly conical to facilitate the removalof the rails laterallyV from the roller line to the hot bed. The rail 13 normally lies; oli-the.` rollers kon its side, as illustrated in. Figures 1 and 2. The hot bed 12 is made up ofparallelsteel railsla` spacedJ apartcandncarrie-d by suitable supportsas-iswellknown.` 1 I The mechanismV for movingA the-hot rails in succession. from the` roller linevr 10i to., the

.hot bed, andxturning` them to uprightposition, embodies, inthe particular formvof the invention illustrated, a shaft 21 mounted to turn in bearings in the xed supports 22 on the outer side of the roller line and parallel thereto, and'having secured thereto at intervals grooved wheels or rolls 23 over which the cables 24, which are preferably made of wire, pass and by which they are reciprocated. Any known. and suitable means is used for driving the shaft and grooved rolls K therefrom slightly below the surface of the roller lineland hot bed, and they are there secured to the ends of cables 24 by suitable means such as a socket and pivotpin 27. lThe drag bar 25 has on its other side opposite4 the brackets 26 similar brackets 28 extending slightly below the surface ofthe roller line and. hot bed, and cables 29' are secu-red` to them andextend at right angles to the drag bar alongv the. hot bed slightly below the-surface, and constitute in effect continuations of cables 211. The cables and brackets Vare of course arranged between rollers of the roller line 10 and between rails .14' of the hot bed. Secured to the drag bar 25 at intervals on the side facing the hot bed,l there are projecting brackets 30 having outer rail 4engaging surfaces ycurved on .a vertical plane from a point 31 below the surface of the hot bed, inwardly towards the drag bar, and upwardlyand then forwardly at the top. on av gradually increasing .curve. rIhese` bracketsmay be inthe form of. vertical'v plates secured at their rear'straight edges to drag bar 25 byangle bars 32.v The lower portions of these cur-ved' brackets normally engage the lower edge-of the top partof the rail- 13. lying on the roller? line and Vwhen the drag bar and these brackets are moved laterally' by` the action ofthe cables across the. roller line.v and alonga part ofthe hot bed,. the` contact of the. brackets.- with the rail` cause. it; to slide laterally overthe surfacev` without vturning onits longitudinal axis fronr its-side position.' In orderTY toturn the rail on its-longitudinal axis and to bring it intoupright position. with itswearing surface` uppermost readv forconvenient han; dling, stops 3B are p aced at intervals in a line across the hot bed parallel to the roller line and at a short distance. from it. rIhese stops may be in the form of short angle bars having a vertical flange 34 extending transversely of the line of movement of the rails and projecting slightly above the surface of the hot bed in the path of the rails, and a horizontal flange 35 bolted to a fixed support 36 as shown in Figure 3. As an alternative, a short angle bar 37, having one flange wider than the other, may be pivotally mounted at the angle on the fixed support 38 by means of a pivot rod 39, with the narrow flange l0 resting on top of the support, and the wider flange ll projecting vertically slightly above the hot bed surface. The angle bar may turn on its pivot in one direction, carrying the wider flange to horizontal position and the narrower flange to vertical position, but when this is done it no longer acts as a stop, since the narrower flange is not sufficiently wide to project above the hot bed surface. Vf hen the wider flange is vertical, the narrower flange is on the side opposite to the roller line, resting on the support so that the projecting portion of the wider flange will act as an unyielding stop for a rail moving from the roller line, but may be turned down by pressure from the opposite direction. It will be understood that there are a number of these pivoted angle bar stops secured to the pivot rod 39 n so that the operator may byturning that rod bring them into or out of operative position. This serves a useful purpose when it is desired that a rail pass without turning. It will of course be understood that the drag bar is so formed and mounted as to pass over these stops' without striking them. The cooperative action of these fixed Vstops and "the curved brackets in turning the rail from side position to upright position is shown inFigure 3 diagrammatically. As here shown, when the drag bar and brackets have movedthe rail 13 far enough to bring its lower flanged edge in contact with the projecting edge 34 of the stop 33, that edge of the rail will cease to move forward; and further forward movement of brackets 30 will cause the opposite edge of the rail in contact with its inclined surface to slide or ride up that surface, turning the rail on its longitudinal axis by a rolling motion over the stop 34, one intermediate position of the parts during4 this action being shown in dotted lines in Figure 3. This figure also shows the position of the parts in dotted linesv after the rolling action is completed and the rail is in upright position beyond the stops. It will be seen that this rolling action, bringing the rail to upright position, takes place automatically as itA is being moved by one lcontinuous operation to the point on the hot bed desired. As heretofore indicated, the operator has control of the it will be understood that in its broader aspects the invention is not limited to the specific means shown, covering the various movements and actions described producing the results stated.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. In an apparatus for handling rails, the combination with a rail conveyor, of a laterally extending support for rails at one sideA of said conveyor, the surface of which isv in the same horizontal plane as that of the convve or means for movin@ a rail laterall 'from' said conveyor to position on said support, stop means carried by the support for interrupting lateral movement ofv a rail thereon without interrupting the movement of the first mentioned means, and means whereby the rail moving means may tilt a rail into upright position about theY stop means.

2. In an apparatus for handling rails, the combination with a rail conveyor, of a laterally extending support for rails at onesidc of said conveyor, means for moving a rail laterally from said conveyor to position on said support, stops Vor projections ext-ending slightly above the surface of said support on a line parallel to the conveyor', the said moving means including members for engaging the rail to move it so constructed and related to said stops as to cause a rail lying on its side to turn on vits longitudinal axis as it passes over said stops to an upright position without yinterrupting said lateral movement of the rail.

3. In an apparatus for handling'rails, the combination with a conveyor support upon which'a -rail is initially moved longitudinally, of a fixed support for rails at one side of said conveyorsupport, means for moving a rail laterally from the conveyor support to Na desired position onthe fixed support, stop means connected to the fixed support for interrupting lateral movement of a rail with respect,4 thereto, and curved guides carried by the rail-moving means whereby the rail is Vtilted into upright position during its lateral movement.

4. In an apparatus for handling rails, the combination with a rail conveyor, of a laterally extending support for rails at one side of said conveyor, means for moving a rail laterally from said conveyor to desired position on said support, transversely aligned lll stops projecting slightly above the surface of said support at a short distance from said conveyor, and transversely aligned brackets on said moving means projecting above the surface for engaging at spaced points longitudinally the outer side of the rail, thecontact surfaces of said brackets being so curved from the bottom rearwardly, upward and forwardly, that when the forward motion of the rail lying on its side is interrupted by the fixed stops, its contacting sid-e will ride by sliding action up said curved surfaces of the brackets, giving the rail a rolling movement over the fixed stops and bringing it to upright position on the support beyond the stops during` the movement of the first mentioned means.

5. In an apparatus for handling rails, the combination with a rail conveyor, of a laterally extending support for rails at one side of said conveyor. means for moving a rail laterally from said conveyor to position on said support, adjustable stops parallel to said conveyor adapted in one position of adjustment to project upwardly slightly above the surface of the hot bed in the path of the laterally moving rail and to unyieldingly resist such movement, but inoperative below the surface in another adjusted position. and brackets on said moving` means having curved contacting surfaces engaging said rail and serving when said rail strikes said stops to turn it with a rolling action over said stops into normal upright position.

6. In an apparatus for handling rails, the combination with a rail conveyor, of a laterally extendingsupport for rails at one side of said conveyor, means for moving a rail laterally from said conveyor to a desired Joint on said support, a stop member pivoted below and extending transversely of said hot bed and having longitudinally spaced portions adapted to freely turn on the pivot upon the side next to the conveyor to a vertical position but not beyond with their upper ends slightly above the surface of the hot bed, and brackets on said moving means having surfaces curved in a vertical plane engaging the outer side of said rail and causing it on striking said stops to turn with a rolling movement on its longitudinal axis over sai-d stops into normal upright position.

7. In an apparatus for handling hot rails, the combination with a roller line conveyor for the rails leaving the rolls and on which the rails normally travel longitudinally lying on their sides, of a laterally extending hot bed at one side of said conveyor, a drag bar extending along said roller line at its outer side immediately above its surface, cables connected to said drag bar at its bottom and passing across said roller line between rollers and along said hot bed slightly below its surface, controlled means for simultaneously and synchronously moving said cables back and forth longitudinally, spaced brackets on said drag bar having surfaces similarly curved on a vertical plane for engaging the side of a rail on said conveyor and movi-ng it laterally from said conveyor to the point desired on said hot bed, and a plurality of raligned stops projecting slightly above the surface of the hot bed in the path of the rail and acting in cooperation with said brackets to turn said rail from its side position to an upright position as it moves over the stops.

In testimony whereof we hereunto aflix our signatures.

FRANK E. HOWELLS. LESTER L. LEACH. 

